Emmy voters nail it with 'Thrones,' 'Normal' leading nods

Updated 3:47 pm, Thursday, July 10, 2014

Photo: Macall B. Polay, Associated Press

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This image released by HBO shows Natalie Dormer, left, Jack Gleeson, Peter Dinklage, right in a scene from "Game of Thrones." The series garnered 19 Emmy Award nominations on Thursday, July 10, 2014, including one for best drama series. (AP Photo/HBO, Macall B. Polay) less

This image released by HBO shows Natalie Dormer, left, Jack Gleeson, Peter Dinklage, right in a scene from "Game of Thrones." The series garnered 19 Emmy Award nominations on Thursday, July 10, 2014, including ... more

Photo: Macall B. Polay, Associated Press

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Matthew McConaughey of "True Detective" is up for best actor in a drama series.

Matthew McConaughey of "True Detective" is up for best actor in a drama series.

Photo: Barbara Nitke, Associated Press

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Taylor Schilling, left, as Piper in "Orange Is the New Black," is nominated for an Emmy Award as best actress in a comedy, and Julianna Margulies, above, as Alicia on "The Good Wife," is vying for best actress in a drama. less

Taylor Schilling, left, as Piper in "Orange Is the New Black," is nominated for an Emmy Award as best actress in a comedy, and Julianna Margulies, above, as Alicia on "The Good Wife," is vying for best actress ... more

Photo: David Giesbrecht, Associated Press

Emmy voters nail it with 'Thrones,' 'Normal' leading nods

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They got it right, for the most part, but before your head starts swiveling around with the mistaken belief that the Emmys have redeemed themselves after years of bad choices, consider this: How could they not?

The reason the 66th annual Primetime Emmy nominations, announced Thursday, were almost foolproof is that rumors that we are living in a golden age of television are greatly exaggerated. There is greatness, to be sure, and the Emmys recognized it, but that greatness bobs along on a vast sea of bad to mediocre shows, especially in the broadcast world. Did you really think "2 Broke Girls" would get a nomination over "Veep"? Or "Revenge" over "Game of Thrones"?

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Overall, HBO needed just one more nomination to hit the 100 mark this year, FX received 45, Showtime 24, and Comedy Central 21. Many of the premium cable numbers were down, but that can be attributed to greater quality competition from other cable networks, like FX, up from 26 nominations last year, and broadband.

CBS led the in the broadcast world with 47 nominations, NBC had 46, ABC lagged with 37, PBS had 34, and Fox, whose entertainment chief Kevin Reilly just left the building, pulled a dismal 18. Except for PBS, all the major broadcast networks were down in Emmy nominations. There are many factors indicating the desperate situation broadcast TV finds itself in 2014, and this is one of them. Not a big one, but still, worth noting.

For other factors in that equation, look to the continued growth of broadband TV: Netflix had 31 nominations this year, up from 14 last year, scoring a fat handful of acting nominations for its two hits, "Orange Is the New Black" and "House of Cards."

And while Amazon and Hulu may not have made the nomination cut this year, they are still a factor in the radically shifting paradigm of television content platforms.

Not only are the Emmys paying more attention to how we access TV shows, they are also recognizing new quality among the shows more quickly. This year, they got it that "True Detective," the FX miniseries "Fargo" and HBO's "Silicon Valley" merited nominations.

AMC's "Breaking Bad," still greatly missed, of course, received 16 nominations for its last season, while "Mad Men" pulled a respectable eight nominations after a rather up-and-down half of its bisected final season. Expect a larger number next year after the second part of the finale airs. Hamm, Robert Morse and Christina Hendricks got acting nods.

Were there some clinkers in the Emmy punch bowl? Of course:

Melissa McCarthy for best actress, comedy, in "Mike and Molly," and for guest actress in a comedy series for hosting "Saturday Night Live"; "The White Queen," an enjoyable but otherwise unremarkable Starz miniseries; Michelle Dockery who is fine but unremarkable in "Downton Abbey"; Lifetime's "Bonnie and Clyde" for outstanding miniseries.

"The Walking Dead" stumbled away with just two technical nominations; "Sons of Anarchy" was all but snubbed with a single nomination in a music category; Tatiana Maslany was overlooked in best actress, drama, for BBC America's "Orphan Black"; the co-stars of FX's "The Americans," Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, were both snubbed, as was the show as best drama; Julianna Margulies and Josh Charles were nominated for CBS' "The Good Wife" in acting categories, but the show was skunked in the best drama category; and while "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and its star Andy Samberg were the darlings of the Golden Globes, only Andre Braugher got an acting nod and the show itself was only cited for a stunt award. I would have recognized Josh Thomas and his Pivot comedy, "Please Like Me," but Emmy voters are so not in that feisty startup network's millennial target audience.

And what about James Spader and NBC's "The Blacklist"? His work is monumental in that show, but again, another series that was recognized only with a nomination for stunt coordination.

In many of these cases, the television academy was shortsighted. In most, however, it was arguably about the reality that there were only a handful of truly great shows and the competition was tougher.

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